Roast Capon Chicken

Last night was the first time that my hubby and i had capon chicken. To our surprised, the meat was very different from normal chicken, it was very tender and juicy. We didn't know what is capon chicken until we google. In short, capon chicken is castrated rooster. You can read more about that here. It's very good for roast, because it's huge and my hubby thought it would be very good for curry chicken too. Hmm... I shall try that next time.

Oktoberfest at Home

Oktoberfest at home. Gourmet sausages (Spicy Italian, Tomato & Basil and German Bratwurst) and Grilled Plum Chicken.

Roast Lemongrass Chicken

Roast Lemongrass Sakura Chicken

Both of us loves to eat roast meat, especially roast chicken. My hubby does not like the aroma of western herbs (which i loves), so i will normally omit them in my roast. But i always like to experiment new flavours so i tried out lemongrass this time. It turned out very nice. The aroma of the lemongrass makes this roast taste a little bit like "Hainanese Chicken Rice" because of the "ginger" flavour (but i did not put any ginger in it). My hubby said if only there was rice, it will be a perfect meal. Because the gravy was very good and will goes very well with rice because of the oriental flavour.

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I wanted to try out some new wine, so i got this Carmenere, which i had never heard off (partly because i am not a regular wine drinker :P). First taste was alright, but when i drink again, i didn't like it. It's not aromatic, but very strong alcoholic taste, some how like the chinese red wine that i have tried sometimes back.
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Lemongrass Roast Chicken
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Ingredients
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- 1 sakura chicken
- 2 stalks of lemongrass (sliced)
- 1 clove of garlic
- 3 shallots
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Marinate

- 1tbs lemon juice
- 2 tbs dark soy sauce
- 1 tbs soya sauce
- 1/4 tsp salt
- 1 tbs brown sugar
- 1 tbs mirin
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Method
1) Clean the chicken and remove the cavities.
2) Put all marinate and ingredients in a ziplock bag, than add in the chicken and rub the marinate all over it. Leave to marinate in the fridge for 4 hours or over night.
3) Remove chicken from fridge and leave chicken to cool till room temperature.
4) Preheat oven to 180 degrees and roast chicken for 40min. Than turn the chicken over to roast further 15min or till cooked.
5) Serve with fresh cucumber, tomatoes and rice.

Homemade Char Siew - 自制叉烧

Homemade Roast Pork - 自制烧肉

Both of us loves to eat chinese roast and could not find a nice one at our area. So everytime when have cravings for roast, we will have to travel all the way to the west to eat it. So i was thinking why not roast my own? So we can save the trouble of travelling or the risk of eating "not so nice" ones should we be too lazy to travel. So tada! I made these yesterday. Eventhough that was my first roast pork, it was quite good. Of course still plenty rooms to improve. Because the roasting time is still not perfect, it was almost burnt. And secondly, the skin was crunchy while hot but harden and chewy when cool.

Saturday Feast - Oriental Roast chicken 中式烤鸡

After working so hard during weekdays, we like to indulge ourselves to sinful food on saturday nights. Our all time favourite are grilled gourmet sausages, grilled drumsticks with baked potatoes, pair with some wine. And if we do go out during the day, we will get some DVDs. Good food and nice movie, this will be a perfect saturday night for us.

What we had last saturday....

Oriental Roast Chicken

Oriental Egg Custard for dessert

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Oriental Egg Custard - 燉蛋

Serves 4

Ingredients

5 eggs
2.5 cups water
60-90g rock sugar (according to taste)
2 tbs condense milk (optional - increase the amt of rock sugar if not adding this)
1-2 tsp grated ginger (optional) - juiced

Method
1) In a saucepan, bring to boil the water and dissolve the rock sugar. Remove from heat and add in condense milk. Let it cool slightly.
2) Beat the eggs lightly and stir into the sugar syrup (keep stirring). Add in the ginger juice.
3) Strain the above mixture into bowls. Steam over medium heat for 10-12min or till set.


Oriental Roast Chicken - 中式烤鸡

Ingredients

1 whole chicken
3 Tbs light soya sauce
1 Tbs dark soya sauce
2 tsp brown sugar
1 tsp 5 spice powder
1 tsp blackpepper
2 Tbs chinese shao xing wine
1 Tbs worcestershire sauce
1 Tbs grated ginger (juiced)
2 Tbs sesame oil
1 whole lemon
1 whole garlic (lightly flatten)

2.5 cups of water
pinch of salt
1 Tbs cornstarch + 1 Tbs water


Method

1) Mixed all the above in a ziplock bag, except the sesame oil.
2) Prick the lemon with a fork and stuff it together with a few cloves of garlic into the chicken. Put the whole chicken into the bag, zip it up and start to "massage" the chicken with the marinate. Leave it in the fridge for 2 hours, than add in the sesame oil. Marinate overnight or minimun 8 hours.
3) Bring chicken out from fridge and let it warm to room temperature. Preheat oven to 200 degrees.
4) In a rectangular pan, pour in the water, pinch of salt, the remaining garlic and the marinate, stir and mix well. Grill the chicken over the pan of water.
5)Baste the chicken with the mixture after 25 minutes. Grilled for a further 10 minutes than turn the chicken over, baste. Leave it to bake for further 30min or till cooked. Total grilling time about 60min-75min.
6) Once the chicken is done. Mashed the garlic in the pan and bring the mixture to boil. Thicken the mixture with cornstarch water. Pour the sauce over chicken or serve at the side.